Apocalypse Now
by nurzubesuch
Summary: Can you possibly call yourself lucky if you survived the worst possibly thing when it only means that you have to face the end of the world? Def. AU, Char. Death. This is horror. You have been warned. Just a two-shot
1. Chapter 1

**Darkness**

It was dark when he rode back on his motorcycle. The street was deserted and it was dark. How could it be darkening? How on earth could he have lost so much time? It had been dawn when he and Gus had met up in the hills to … to do something. He couldn´t completely remember. He only knew that it had been important. Very important. He still knew that he had tried to get Lassie to come but that there had been something in the way. Some official police procedure crap, as always. But he had known that it couldn´t wait that long, because … that was the part he wasn´t so sure about anymore.

But he knew it hadn´t been the ordinary stuff. It had been far more important than that. Vaguely he could remember Lassie making fun of him for something he had tried to tell him. Something important. Something that was still blur in his mind. Why he couldn´t remember he didn´t know. He only knew that he had called Gus when he hadn´t been able to get Lassie to do something. And he knew that his head was aching. It was aching pretty bad.

The cold air that blew around his head didn´t make it better, though it was cooling the aching a little. But it only resulted in stronger yet dull throbbing instead of a piercing pain that had made its way from his temple down to his brain. But the wind was cooling so he could stand the pain and still drive. He had to keep going. He didn´t know why he only knew he had to.

He suddenly realized that he didn´t wear his helmet. Why didn´t he? Had he forgotten to take it on? But he had forgotten a lot hadn´t he? For example where this pain in his head came from. And why he was bleeding. Goddammit he was bleeding. No he had been bleeding. The blood had already dried on his cheek. He could feel that when he moved his face. It had dried in his beard, what was far too thick by now. That could only mean that it had been there for a while. Probably when he had been knocked out.

He paused in his thoughts for a moment, looking for the memory related to this conclusion. Knocked out? How? What had happened? And why was he alone on this ride back to town? Gus had been with him to begin with. He had waited for him up there until he had come with his company car. But now Shawn was alone. Riding his bike down the empty streets in the last dim light of the day. Where was Gus? Why couldn´t he remember what had happened? And why did he have the strange feeling that something bad had happened? Something really bad.

He turned right when the road bend. A gas station came in sight. A small one, barely a station at all. Just two pumps actually, but there was light in the house and Shawn figured that he´d better call for help instead of keep riding the bike in his state. He needed help. He needed help damn bad. Not because of his head. Not even because of Gus – and something deep down just told him that there was probably no help for Gus anymore even if his mind still denied him to remember what had happened to his childhood friend. No he needed help because of something much more dangerous. Something so bad that his mind was just not able to put it in a term that he could understand. Something his mind maybe even refused to understand. Was that the reason why he couldn´t remember? Because he was afraid of what his memory would tell him?

He drove into the station and stopped his bike under the roof. The bright and cold light over him was blinding and hurting his eyes. More it was hurting his brain. But he had to bear that. There was no time for pain. Something was coming and he had to hurry. He had to call Lassie and Jules. He had to call for help.

He dismounted his bike and turned to the shop. For a moment he thought he´d heard something. Not in the station but outside, in the woods. He paused and looked ahead. The lights above him and the rising darkness outside made it almost impossible for him to see what was beyond that light under which he stood. Everything out there looked as dark as a tarpit. He could hear some crickets but that was all. Whatever he had thought he´d heard was gone now. Everything was quiet. Though he had the rising feeling that it was not gone at all. It was far from being gone.

His heart started to pound heavily and he had suddenly the greatest fear in his life. He had no idea why but he knew he was in danger. That something was out there. Something bad. He turned to the shop and stumbled to the door. He was limping. Another fact that he hadn´t noticed as long as he had sat on his bike. He looked down his leg and saw it soaked with blood. Yet he didn´t feel much pain there. Only a dull throbbing. When he looked up again he saw his reflection in the glass and he looked awful. He had been right, there was dried blood all over his cheek. His beard had grown a big deal. More than he would have expected in just a few hours. But his head was still spinning so he dismissed the thought. He had no time to think about his damn beard or his hurting leg. He had to hurry.

He reached the door of the shop and limped in. No one was there. The light in here was even worse than outside and somehow it felt strange to stand in here. As if the air in this place had another quality. There was suddenly some pressure on his ears. The humming sound of the lights made his head feel dizzy.

„Hello?" he called out and his own voice sounded like an alien voice in his ears. „Is someone here? I need a telephone. Pretty urgent."

No one answered. He made his way over to the cash register, while still looking around if someone was coming in from a backroom or something. No one did. He also didn´t expect someone to show up any longer. Something told him that there was no one here. No one that could still come at least.

He had almost reached the register when he heard something again. A strange sound, that he couldn´t identify. It sounded a little like an animal but he had no idea what animal would make a sound like that. Then there was the sound of something that was cracking. Like old bread sounded when it was already hard and someone would brake the crust. The sound came from behind the register, Shawn could tell. He stopped for a second, afraid of going closer. Afraid of what he would see back there. He didn´t want to see it. But then his curiosity was stronger and he moved again. Maybe one part of his mind tried to stop him but there was also another part that just needed to see it. No matter how cruel it might be.

He reached the register and there he heard the sound again. He swallowed dryly. Slowly he bowed over the counter to see what was behind it. Whatever it was, it was lying on the floor. The sound again. He bowed a little further. And then he saw it. It was the cashier. He lay on the floor. The man was obviously dead but it wasn´t the dead body that made Shawn´s blood turn cold in this moment. He was used to see dead people but no body he had seen on crime scenes over the years had been like this. There hadn´t been cracks all over the skin of the body and there hadn´t been bugs the size of exotic spiders coming out of those cracks either.

Shawn jumped up and away from that counter. Now he could see some of the bugs crawling on the floor, coming out from the place behind the register where they had been hiding. Or was it, where they had just hedged? Shawn had no idea where this thought came from but he didn´t care. He turned on his heel and just ran out, as fast as his half disabled leg would carry him.

He had just reached his bike when he saw a movement in the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw what he had heard before. It was still there all right. And it was even worse than what he had seen in that shop. It was standing at the bushes, where the woods started to take over the landscape. It was still too dark for Shawn to see it right but he had already seen too much for his taste. He mounted his bike and stamped on the starter. When the engine didn´t come at once a whining sound creeped up his throat. The thing whatever it was, had heard the howling of his engine and was now coming for him. And it came fast.

Shawn stamped down on the starter again, now howling himself like a squeaking door that was opened very very slowly. Finally the engine came to life. Not a second to early. Shawn grabbed his handlebars and pushed. He shot out of the gas station right in the moment when the thing that lunged for him had entered the light. He could see it only for a second but that was enough. The whining in his throat became a full scream and then he was on the street again, the light of the station left behind and with it the monster that was there. Or so he believed.

His scream got stuck in his throat for a moment, came up again, died again only to come up again. He was essentially breathing screams. What the fuck had he seen just now? It had looked like a mixture of a spider and a cockroach. His eidetic memory came to him in the worst possible moment and showed him the details again. He had seen claws that tucked into the ground and teeth like from a … from something that didn´t even exist. But he didn´t need this lack of comparison to know that a creature like that shouldn´t exist at all. It just couldn´t be.

He heard clicking sounds behind him, even over the noise of his motor. And then there was a shriek. Not a human shriek. It was the beast that was making this sound. It was after him. And it was fast. He drove faster but somehow this thing stayed with him. Its many legs carried it far too fast to get rid of it. Too many legs. Too many actually to belong to just one creature it shot through Shawn´s head. And then there was a whooshing sound and Shawn lost the grip of his bike. He lost the whole bike under his butt and the next thing he knew was that he was flying.

He could hear his bike explode somewhere behind him. This thing must have ripped the tank open with its claws. Then he hit the ground and rolled. He rolled down a hillside, what felt like forever. And then he just stopped rolling. For a moment he just lay there, his head whirling like a spintop and a stomach that wanted to see the outside world. Then there was the shrieking again and this time it was right in front of him.

Shawn jumped up and faced the queen of what he assumed to be the ugliest termite on earths surface. It was staring at him with its multiple eyes, spit dropping from its teeth. Then it lunged forward at him. Shawn raised his arms in a manner of protection but of course this gesture was completely pointless against a thing that big and that hungry. Another second and it would just bury its teeth into his flesh. Then he heard a shot ringing out.

He jumped. His whole body was shivering with fear and terror. But he also knew that he was safe, that the thing in front of him was dead. He lowered his arm and saw the beast brake down to the ground, an awful rattling sound coming from its mouth. He turned around to see who had saved his life and was simultaneously shocked and happy when he saw Lassiter standing there with his gun still aiming at the thing. The detective´s eyes were piercing and fully awake, the way Shawn knew him when he was after a criminal. Only that this time it was a thousand times worse and the look in Lassiter´s eyes was a thousand times more haunted. He also had grown a beard similar to the one Shawn had seen in his own reflection. So Lassiter hadn´t been able to shave either.

„Shawn!" a familiar voice called him, the most beautiful voice Shawn thought he´d ever heard. And then she was beside him, grabbing his shoulders and turning him around so he had to face her. Her eyes were as haunted as Lassiter´s but she was looking concerned. She was concerned because of him.

„Shawn, my god. Are you all right?" she asked, gasping for air.

Shawn wanted to tell her that he was fine but he knew it would be a lie. Then his mind switched back into gear and he tried to struggle to his feet.

„Run." he gasped and when she didn´t seem to understand what he had said he yelled it at her. „RUN!" he yelled. „There are more of them. They are coming!"

Jules and Lassiter looked at him confused for a second, but only for a second. Then the understanding hit them.

„SWARM!" Lassiter yelled and then he started to shoot at the things that had now reached the turnpike.

Jules let go of Shawn and started to shoot too. It was the first time that he noticed that she was carrying a machine gun. If he had had the time to feel anything else but panic, he would have found it extremely sexy to see her that way, so Rambo-like. But he had no time. He was already confused enough. Not even the fact that Jules was shooting with an MP could really get through to him. Lassiter had an MP on his back too, but he first emptied the magazine of his glock before he threw it away and took the automatic and went on shooting with this.

Shawn was still too struck to do anything but watch what was happening in front of his eyes in stunned disbelieve. There were dozens of these creatures now, coming down this hillside he had rolled down just a few minutes ago. It was like the proverbially invasion. Other people had joined Lassie and Jules now, shooting at the things along with them. Shawn assumed that they had to be police officers just because they were with Lassie and Jules. He didn´t recognize any of them though. Until he spotted Buzz McNab that was. After he had seen him, he also found some others that he knew, including chief Vick. They all looked different and yet still the same. Shawn didn´t know what was the difference. Other than the fact that these people he had worked with for so many years, were suddenly shooting at some alien insects from planet X in the middle of the night somewhere in the wildlife of the hills around Santa Barbara.

The creatures were coming closer now. The former cops had managed to kill some of them but not enough to stop the others. They seemed to have a thick armour that protected them from the bullets. At least to a certain degree. But they had to have some weak points otherwise Lassie hadn´t been able to kill the one that had attacked Shawn with just one bullet. He probably had had the time to aim better, had had a clearer shot. Now these things were crawling around in a high speed and made it almost impossible to aim at anything on purpose. The cops were just shooting and hoping for some lucky hits. Some of them did hit.

One of the dead creatures had fallen down right in front of McNab. One of the others, not caring about its dead kind, just crawled over it. Buzz raised his gun at it but too late. The claws had already gotten grip of him. Lassiter, who had seen it coming ran at it, yelling like a madman and shot at the thing. It threw McNab aside and turned on Lassiter instead. Lassiter stopped out of the claws reach and kept shooting. Instead of trying to grab him, that thing suddenly started to spit. Lassiter tried to avoid the spit but some of it hit his leg. He fell to the ground with an awful scream of pain. Shawn winced at the sight. He wanted to do something but he didn´t know what.

Jules yelled Lassiter´s name and ran over to him. The beast was already over him and Shawn could already see it eat her and him alive just withing a few seconds. He opened his mouth for a scream and started to run. But before he had a chance to yell her name, she was beneath the creature poking her MP into its belly and pulled the trigger. The thing shrieked in agonie and then fell aside. Shawn was still running. All of this had happened within just a few seconds. But there was still something more that had happened the same time. The first creature was dead but now there was a second one, crawling over the dead one to get a meal. Jules hadn´t seen it yet.

Shawn reached Lassiter and grabbed his gun without thinking. The beast had just opened its mouth to eat him and probably Lassie and Jules right along with him, when he pulled the trigger. The MP started to rattle in his hands violently. Another sound like this joined in and then the creature fell down, dead as the first one under his and Jules´ combined fire.

Somehow he managed it to let go of the trigger and stop shooting. Everything inside of him was shaking and not just because of the aftereffect of that automatic weapon.

„They´re retrieving!" someone yelled and soon after that the shooting stopped. It was quiet again.

Shawn looked around and saw several fallen creatures lying around, but also some fallen men. One of them was Buzz. He saw the chief bending over him and then lowering her head in grief.

A hand grabbed the gun Shawn was holding and he jumped. Then he saw it was Lassiter who had grabbed his MP. The detective´s familiar blue eyes stared up at Shawn from his position on the ground.

„Give that to me before you shoot anyone." he said through gritted teeth.

„Carlton!" Jules cried and came running to them. „Carlton, your leg."

„I´m fine." he claimed but the sweat on his forehead and the distorted face belied his words.

„No, you´re not." Jules promptly objected and examined her partners leg. „It needs to be bandaged." she said.

„All right everybody." chief Vick cried in her usual stern leaders voice. „We have to get out of here before they come back. Move. Back to the base." With a sad voice she added: „We get our dead in the morning." And even quieter she added: „If they are still here then."

„Come on, Carlton." Juliet said. „I´ll help you up."

„I can walk." he claimed but at the end she had to lift him up anyway, his arm over her shoulder, his wounded leg barely able to move. Shawn took the detective´s other arm over his shoulder and together they dragged Lassiter along. Shawn´s gaze wandered over to Buzz McNab´s dead body and remained there until they had passed him. Lassiter had tried to save him and had almost died himself. Other officers had died too and Shawn had the bad feeling that they were not the first ones. The fact that the S.B.P.D. was up here in the hills instead of in the city, was more than enough to tell him that whatever had happened, it had already happened in the city. If the city still existed.

They reached the chief and she looked at him with a mixture of surprise and relief. But mostly he saw sadness in her eyes. They were no longer the eyes of the chief of police. Now they were the eyes of a warrior that had seen the worst a human being could ever see in an entire life. Shawn threw one last look around and he got an idea what it was. The only thing he still couldn´t understand was, how all of this could have happened so fast. He had been meeting with Gus up at the hills only this morning. What the hell had happened since then?


	2. Chapter 2 Lucky Me

**Lucky Me**

It was a cave, where they went. A cave where they were hiding from the creatures and from what else might be out there in the dark of this new world, Shawn had had the bad luck to find himself in.

He had needed some time to identify the place but then he noticed the hole in the ground somewhere in the back of the cave and he just knew where they were. Here it had been where he and Gus had dug the hole and found Bouchard´s treasure. It was unbelievable how far away all these memories seemed to him now. It was as if all of this had happened in another universe. Another dimension. And who knew. Maybe it had.

His hand wandered up to his forehead and touched the bandage that was there now. After they had taken care of Lassie and his leg (it seemed the spit of these things were more like battery asset than usual spit and in some twisted way it reminded Shawn on The Fly) they had also given him some treatment. Now his own leg was bandaged too – what as strange as it was had caused it to hurt hurt like hell now, where it had only throbbed before – and his head as well. As it seemed he had suffered some sort of a deep scratch that went from the back of his head all the way to his forehead. He had been lucky not to lose half of his ear, Dobson had said when he had cleaned the wound. Whatever had gotten him, it had to have some sharp claws.

But something told Shawn it hadn´t been one of those creatures that had done this, like Dobson seemed to believe. Some images had flashed through his mind then. Images of blinding lights and a sudden blast. Not an explosion but something as strong as that. Or even stronger. He remembered that he had been buried under something. And that was all his mind allowed him to get out. Except for that fact that he knew, that at this time, Gus had still be with him.

Now he was not only confused but depressed. What was all this? It couldn´t be real, could it? It was like facing the end of the world. So this couldn´t be real. It just had to be a dream. A horrible nightmare. Only that he didn´t believe that in a nightmare one could have a headache that bad. Besides, he had never used to dream things like that. Not even if he really had had a nightmare. Those usually contained speeches to reveal a criminal where he suddenly found himself lack of arguments. Or occasionally he found himself naked in front of the whole police station and wasn´t able to hide himself, while Lassie was laughing at him. Things like that. Embarrassment, that was his nightmares. Not something like this. Not by a long shot.

Chief Vick came over to him. She had a bandage too but it was just a small one at her upper arm. „I must say, I didn´t expect to ever see you again." she told him. „Not after all that happened. But I´m glad you´re all right."

„Thanks, chief." he said.

She looked at him with those hesitating glad eyes, he had noticed before. „Where is Mr. Guster?" she then asked him carefully, obviously expecting the worst answer.

„I don´t know." Shawn said and that was the truth. Except it wasn´t the whole truth. He might not be able to remember but he at least had a feeling that told him the truth. But it was too early for him to admit this. Instead he asked the chief: „How bad is it?"

„Very bad." Karen answered. „They are in the city. Nesting. Whoever could run ran. God knows where they are hiding. I just hope some people made it out of the city. We were escorting some civilians when the swarm attacked. Many people just scattered and ran. Some made it into the woods. More were killed." she closed her eyes for a moment, trying to force the horrible pictures back that had come up in her head. „We´ve lost too many already." she said.

Her voice broke and Shawn knew she couldn´t talk anymore. He reached out a hand for her and lay it on her arm for a moment. She took a deep breath and then nodded at him. He didn´t say another word when she walked off to sit down in a corner of the cave. He had never seen her that tired and … broken. But he could sympathize with that feeling. He had seen McNab being killed by one of those beasts and he still couldn´t stop think of it.

He turned around and threw a look at Lassiter, who lay in another corner. His wounded leg lay stretched out before him. He was sleeping. Or so it seemed. There was sweat covering his face and his breaths were unsteady. If he was sleeping then he was dreaming and in a place like this this could be even worse than waking.

Shawn saw his face switching and felt a stitch in his chest. He wanted to go over to him and wake him up, save him from this nightmare, that was going on behind his closed lids. But he didn´t. He couldn´t. For some reason he couldn´t stand to look Lassiter in the eyes. For he was afraid what he would see in them. Maybe he would see the truth. A truth he couldn´t bring himself to commit to. Lassiter had always been able to tell when Shawn had a weak moment. And right now he felt more vulnerable then ever. Maybe Lassiter would know, when he looked at him. That was it what he really was afraid of. That the detective could see the truth in Shawn´s eyes. Only that Shawn had no idea what truth it could be that he was so afraid of. Did this make any sense? But that was the way he felt. It had to be something terrible that much he knew. What other reason could he have to feel so guilty?

He turned away from the sleeping detective and spotted Juliet sitting at the little fire in the center of the cave. She was staring into a distance that only she could see. Maybe thinking back at McNab too, who had died such a horrible death just a few hours ago. Maybe just wondering, like Shawn, if all this was just a dream that would end when she woke up. It had been hard for Shawn to see the chief in that state and also to see Lassie so vulnerable. But seeing her with this expressionless gaze was almost more than he could stand. He walked over to her and sat down opposite of her at the fire.

„How are you feeling?" he asked her.  
>„Not so good." she answered not looking at him. Her gaze was fixated at Lassiter he now saw.<p>

„He will be all right." Shawn told her.

„Sure." was all she said and then they fell silent for a while.

„What happened?" he finally asked her, not only because he wanted to know, but also to fill this awkward silence. Right now he couldn´t so much as stand silence.

„No one knows for sure." she said and started rubbing her wrists. „They just appeared and when they did … no one was safe. And from one moment to the other human kind is no longer the dominant species on this planet." she gave a nervous chuckle. „It has been only three days but it feels like a lifetime." she said.

Shawn looked up at this. „Three days?" he asked.

„Yeah." she said without much attention to how surprised he was. He guessed she just assumed he was lack of time perception too, just like everybody else. When she finally looked at him, her eyes were asking. „Where have you been that long?" she wanted to know. „How did you survive?"

He wanted to say something but he didn´t know what. Partly because he still couldn´t really remember.

„Was it really three days?" he asked her instead.

She nodded. „That was the last time I spoke to you. You wanted Carlton to check out the Carver mansion."

Carver. That name stroke something in Shawn´s head. Yeah, that was the name of the place he and Gus had planned to check out. They had done so because Lassiter wouldn´t do it. At least not without a warrant. But there had been no time to wait for a warrant. Because …

...

„_Because I´m pretty sure that they are hiding an alien vessel up there." Gus had told Lassie in spite of their agreement not to mention this certain part of the suspicions they had._

_Of course Lassiter hadn´t believed a single word of that. Carver Enterprises was a high tech laboratory and just because there were sometimes rumors from paranoid locals that lived in the hills far too long on their own, it didn´t mean that there was something illegal going on up there._

„_We´re not talking about illegal stuff." Shawn had cried. „We are talking about ill...interstellar stuff." _

_This new created word had caused a usual Lassiter frown but that had been the only positive reaction they had gotten from the detective. _

„_Spencer, just because its called Carver Enterprises, doesn´t mean that he deals with little green men." Lassiter had told them. „I thought you had embarrassed yourself enough with the Kessler case last year."_

„_This is different, Lassie." Shawn had cried._

„_Right. This time we have evidence." Gus had supported him._

„_Ah yeah? What? Your little nerd friend got something on his radar?"_

„_Right." Gus answered a little surprised that Lassiter had guessed it with the first try. _

„_He scanned the mansion of this Carver guy and there was a massive radiation coming from it." Shawn had explained._

_There Lassiter had frowned. „Really?" he had asked now a little more seriously listening._

„_Yeah. We don´t know what kind of radiation it was. But it was no heat signature."_

„_Definitely not heat." Gus agreed. _

„_But it was something enormous. Lassie. We have to have a look at this. And we have to stop them from whatever they´re doing up there, because the spirits tell me that they are already so close to the big finally of their perverted little experiment. We have to …"_

_But this talk must have gotten Lassiter back to the ground and he had interrupted him, telling them that he in fact could arrange a visit at the mansion. But he would have to get a warrant first._

„_How long do you need for that?" Shawn had asked._

„_Maybe a day." Lassiter had answered. „Its Friday, Spencer, what do you think? The judges are playing golf now. I won´t get anyone before tomorrow morning."_

„_Then it will be too late." Gus had cried._

„_Get real." Lassiter had replied with an amused smirk. „I will see to check out what kind of radiation it is your nerd friend saw. But that is all. You leave that man alone, you hear me?"_

_But of course they couldn´t have done this even if they had sworn on their pinkies._

_..._

„Three days?" he asked again, still unable to believe that. As far as he was concerned this talk with Lassie had been just yesterday. How could he have lost three days?

„Shawn?" Juliet asked, concern in her voice.

„I´m sorry." he chuckled nervous. „I … I seem to have problems with my memory."

Alone the sound of his own voice speaking the word memory seemed to bring something back into motion though. The Carver mansion. Gus´ blue car that stopped at the curbside right outside of the Carver property. Images from outside and later from the inside of the building. Strange images. But that couldn´t be true. Shawn was sure his mind was mixing his memories from yesterday – no, three days ago – with pictures from Star Trek episodes or something like that. It had to be like that. It just had to be.

„What happened to you, Shawn?" Juliet asked.

He looked into her eyes and felt like frozen dead. His mouth opened but there was no sound coming out. Eventually he managed it to shake his head: „I … I don´t know." he said. „I can´t remember."

Only that this time it was a lie.

...

_They hadn´t gone up there immediately. Shawn had been the first one who had lost his patience. After he and Gus had separated, making themselves promise that they wouldn´t get head over heals into an obsession like this again (Lassiter had been right, they had embarrassed themselves enough already in this regard) he had been sitting in the Psych office for a while. He had tried to sit it out and he had succeeded. For a while. Then he had headed home and he had been able to stand the waiting for almost the whole night, telling himself that he had to stay calm. That he had to trust Lassie. But then the morning had come and he just hadn´t been able to stand it any longer. _

_He had called Lassiter and asked him if he had the warrant. Lassiter had snapped back at him if he knew what time it was and that he would let him know as soon as he had the goddamn warrant. Then he had hung up on him. Shawn couldn´t wait that long. He had never had real psychic visions but he had a very bad feeling about this Carver guy and his so called high-tech enterprise. He just knew that it was urgent to find out what they were doing up there and that it couldn´t wait any longer. So he had called Gus and told him he would drive up into the hills and check the Carver mansion himself. Gus had agreed to meet him there and so they had met. Early in the morning on Saturday the 23rd . _

_Shawn didn´t know himself how they had managed it to get inside of this highly secured building, but somehow they had. And what an inside it had been. The first floor was nothing special if one didn´t count the megalomaniac expensive interior. But the most interesting thing had been the elevator that had led upstairs into the tower that was part of the building. A single tower that had no windows at all, Shawn had noticed from the outside. Of course they had taken the ride. They just had to. Only that now in the retrospective Shawn wasn´t so sure anymore if it really had been a good idea. If they hadn´t maybe Gus would still be alive. Maybe nothing of all this would have happened in the first place._

...

He started to shake his head in a pathetic try to keep the memories from coming back to him. No he didn´t want to know it. He didn´t want to remember. Jules was looking at him from the other side of the fire but he couldn´t look into her eyes. He had to get out. Away from her, from everything. From everybody who could possibly see what was going on behind his forehead.

„Shawn …" she started but he cut her off.

„I´m sorry." he said and got up. „I need some fresh air."

And with that he was already on his way out. Only that before he could leave, his eyes caught Lassiter who still lay in the corner. The detective wasn´t sleeping anymore. Now he was fully awake and he looked at him as if he knew exactly what Shawn was running away from. As if he knew everything. Shawn felt himself frozen dead for a moment by that glare. But then he managed it to get free and continued his run for the cave exit.

He reached it and as if the fresh air, he had claimed before Jules he would need so much, would have this effect, he immediately bowed down and puked behind the next best rock. It was almost a miracle that it hadn´t happen earlier. When he was done he sat up with his back leaning against the wall of the cave and just breathed. There was no way he could keep the memories out any longer, he knew that. He could close his eyes but that would make them come even faster. He had no chance. Knowing and at last accepting this, he took one last deep breath and closed his eyes, ready to let come whatever memory would persuade him. Even accepting that it would drive him completely mad as soon as he faced it.

And then it came.

_..._

_The room had been bright with light. Everywhere there had been computers and from somewhere they had heard their voices. They had sneaked behind some of the computers and peeked out at them. And what they had seen … it had just blown their minds away. First they had believed it to be just a big plasma screen, that showed some sort of science fiction film. Some monster film. It had to be one because creatures like that didn´t exist in real life. But then they had heard these dudes in the white coats talking and they had understood._

„_The portal is stable, sir." one of them had said. _

„_How long before we can start?" the addressed man, probably Carver the crazy scientist himself, had asked._

„_Just a few more minutes." the first dude had answered. „We´re still waiting for the periodic wormhole to reappear. As soon as our instruments tell us, we can procede." Then he hesitated. „Sir, are you really sure you want us to do it? If anything goes wrong …"_

„_You´re here to create a bridge, Anton, not to think." Carver had replied and that had silenced the other man._

„_Dude." Gus had whispered at Shawn. „Thats a transdimensional portal."_

„_A what?" Shawn had whispered back not believing a bit that it could be that._

„_Didn´t you hear what they said?" Gus had replied. „They are trying to open the gate, portal or whatever they call it. When they do that these creatures will come over to our side."_

_Shawn had peered out of their hiding place to have another look at this big screen thing. He had to admit that it really didn´t look like a film what he saw there. It didn´t look like anything that was made up with special effects. Because it just didn´t look like a fake picture. It looked far too real for that. It even looked three dimensional. Still, it couldn´t be. How could something like that possibly be?_

„_We have to stop them." Gus whispered._

„_Agreed." Shawn had replied. „Not because I believe these dudes really opened a gate to another dimension. But if this radiation Dennis found has anything to do with this, then they could create a really big mess with what they are up to."_

„_Then lets do it." Gus had urged._

„_But how?"_

_Instead of answering him Gus had produced a bottle of water from under his jacket. Always prepared, that was the way Shawn knew his friend. _

„_Dude, sweet." he´d said. „Simple but genius."_

„_I know." Gus had replied and then they had fistbumped. It had been the last fistbump Shawn had ever gotten from his childhood friend._

_They had sneaked around the console that had been their hiding place and went to the front of it. Gus immediately had poured the water over the panel, causing the machine to crackle and spark. The scientists had spun around to them in shock. Later Shawn had no idea where it had come from but one of them suddenly held a gun in his hand. He shot at them. Carver tried to stop him, not to save their butts but to save his machines from being hit. He failed in both regards. Shawn had managed it to duck down fast enough but he had heard Gus groan behind him. When he had swirled around he had seen his friend lying on the ground, bleeding from at least two bullet holes. The machine behind him had at least three holes and it was crackling worse than ever._

„_You idiot." Carver shouted at the shooter. „Now we won´t be able to control the gate any longer."_

_Shawn hadn´t listened to them. All he had seen was Gus, who lay on the floor. He had crawled back to him._

„_Shawn." Gus had croaked._

„_Its ok buddy." Shawn had replied scared to death. „We´re getting you to a doctor. Just hang in there."_

_But Gus had already been drifting off. „Did we … stop them?" he had asked._

„_Yes. Yes we stopped them." Shawn had said. „But don´t worry about that now. Just stay with me ok?" He had gotten his cell phone out, trying to call Lassie and tell him where they were and that they needed and ambulance. But something had disturbed his signal and he hadn´t been able to reach anyone. _

_Behind him Carver and the others were screaming at each other. They tried to stop something from happening. Up until this moment, Shawn hadn´t really believed that something could truly happen, except for some bad radiation to get out and poison the environment and maybe the city. But now he heard sounds that just couldn´t be from a film. He turned around and what he saw there would have been enough already to let a person lose his mind. The screen had been cracked. Only that it wasn´t cracked at all. One of those creatures he had seen in the film, was standing in the screen. IN the screen. Its back was still on the other side but its front was in the room with them. The guy with the gun shot at it but the bullets glanced off the armour of the creature and went into several parts of the computer all around. _

„_Shawn." Gus croaked and caught his friends attention one last time. He had reached out a hand for him but in the moment when Shawn turned around to him, the grip of Gus´ hand had already loosened again. His hand fell down to the ground limp and lifeless. _

_Behind Shawn there were screams now. But this time it were screams of agony. He didn´t need to look at it to know that the creature had gotten the man with the gun. The man who had killed his friend. Then there was an explosion, when the computer the bullet had hit, went off. Something hit Shawn at the head and the blast threw him some meters into a corner. Then he only saw fragments falling down on him from the ceiling. He raised his arms to protect himself. While he got buried under the fragments of the computer, he could hear more screams. _

_The gate was open and the creatures who had found they would get plenty of food on this other side, came over to them. Soon they had crowded the room and smashed the walls to get out. Out into this new world they had entered without even understanding how. Suddenly there had been a portal between their world and this one. A portal that its creators hadn´t been able to control the way they had planed to do it. Because somebody had made a mistake. A bad bad mistake. Had not somebody once said, that the worst things in human history used to happen in the best imaginable intentions? Shawn didn´t know if somebody had ever said this, but he knew it was true. Damn it was._

...

He was shaking. Their intentions had been good. They had tried to stop it from happening and with that they had caused it themselves. Now Gus was dead and the world they had known was changed. At the verge of destruction. The dawn of a new species. A species that didn´t even belong to this world. But now it was here and suddenly human kind was not the dominant species any longer. They were hiding in a cave for gods sake. And all this was his fault.

He couldn´t go back inside and look them in the eyes knowing that he had been the one who had brought them here. How could he ever live with this knowledge that he was lying to them about this truth? This fundamental all changing truth. He couldn´t tell them. That was impossible. How could he expect them to live with this truth and not to kill him for it? Or to send him away, what would be essentially the same. Shawn had never wished his father here more than in this moment. No matter what he had done, Henry had always been there for him. He had always been there. Now Shawn didn´t even know if his dad was still alive. Probably not. It was devastating to hope for something like that in this new world.

He had lost his best friend and he had lost his father. He had lost the whole world. The only people that were still left, were the ones in this cave behind him. He couldn´t afford to lose them as well. He just couldn´t tell them. He would have to find a way to live with it … or to kill himself. He should be dead anyway. He should have died along with Gus and all the other guys that had been there in this room, where it had started. But he had been lucky. The fragments that had buried him, had disguised him from those oversized bugs and he had survived. He had been lucky to live to see what he had done to the world.

Lucky me, he thought. Lucky me that I was allowed to live so I can see what will become of this world. Of human kind. He had been unconscious for three days but he had been lucky enough to wake up again. To wake up in a horror version of The Lost World. A world in which human kind was fighting against killer bugs and living in caves once again. And he had had the luck to run into the only people left on this planet that he could really rely on. That had been the only real luck he had had. Lassie and Jules were here and so was chief Vick. Buzz had been here too but now he wasn´t any more.

He looked over the woods beneath the cave´s entry and sighed. Somewhere down there were bugs as big as cars. And they were hungry. Hungry for him and the others. So far they had survived. The only thing they had to do now was surviving a little longer. Long enough to see the army arrive and bomb those creatures back into their own dimension. If they could survive that long – if – everything would be all right. Only that he knew it wouldn´t be all right. Not as long as he remembered what had happened. He had been lucky enough to survive. But only to live with the memory of his best friend´s death and of the biggest mistake they had ever done.

Lucky me, he thought bitterly, fighting back the tears. Lucky me.


End file.
